(RNS) The historical drama “Silence,” stars Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson and begins shooting in Taiwan later this year. Based on Shusaku Endo’s 1980 novel of the same name, it's a dark, true tale set in 17th-century Japan.

I hope discretion will be used in making the movie.
I saw both movies and truly enjoyed them as great cinema art.
However as I recall., both movies had a great deal of violence and nudity. Consequently the movies never got big promotion from most regular churchgoers since movies with a lot of sex and violence are not their cup of tea
Thus the movies did not get the great attendance they should have gotten based on their quality and interest.

Chaplain Martin

I agree with Deacon Bresnahan,
As a person who has a degree in history and especially interested in the civil war in the north, I had learned of the time of “The Gangs of New York”. I was so interested in the historical angle that I didn’t let the sexual degradation scenes disturb me. When I convinced my good baptist wife to see it, her reaction to the sexual nudity scenes was such that she missed many points. Also on seeing it a second time, I was appalled at the scenes that went on too long.
I hope Martin Scorsese will curb any nudity that will cause the faithful not to want to see it.

Larry

You think a film featuring torture and violent persecution by a feudal society is going to be portrayed with such “delicate sensibilities” in mind? By the director of Taxi Driver and Goodfellas? Really?

The “faithful” who are gunshy of nudity and violence in service of a plot are not Scorses’s usual audience and I have never seen a film of his which attempts to court such a PG minded crowd.

But to be perfectly honest there is a huge hypocritical streak to such audiences. Cecil B. DeMille recognized it back in the day. If you dress up the sex and violence as a “Biblical epic” you can get away with almost anything. You can feed as many people to the lions, have as many Roman orgies as budget permits provided that the faithful win out in the final reel. Although “the churchgoing crows: would normally be the type to protest gory films involving torture, they jumped at the chance to Mel Gibson’s version of “Hostel 33 AD”.

The Great God Pan

This isn’t Scorsese’s first return to religious material since “The Last Temptation of Christ.” He also made “Kundun,” an underrated biopic about the current Dalai Lama.

As for the concerns about sex and violence, I don’t know what the content of the novel “Silence” is like but Scorsese is perfectly capable of directing films that don’t feature orgies or graphic murders. “Kundun,” “Hugo,” “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “The Age of Innocence,” “The King of Comedy.” There is more to his body of work than “Goodfellas” and “Casino.”

These films make a boatload of money, but the cost to religion is always incredibly high. It bursts the bubble, de-mystifies god and destroys the ‘sacredness’ of the argument in the long run.

Muslims are right to get all worked up when Mohammed appears in a film – it is destructive when people realize how ridiculous these religious claims are when they are applied in real life – and the film audience shares the experience which diminishes it further.

Scorcese’s, “The Last Temptation of Christ” destroyed Jesus on many levels.
It strips the bible of its authority – the film trumps the Biblical version.

Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” made multi-millions of dollars.
But it added up to nothing more than a snuff film. And once the audience has a chance to think about all the gore and torture, the next thought is WHAT KIND OF LOVING GOD WOULD REQUIRE THIS; THE TORTURE AND HUMILIATION OF A HUMAN BEING?

And as soon as the movie is over everybody googles the claims
– guess what? Religion loses every time. It shows people what they didn’t really think about in the bible; when they do its all ‘damn, this stuff is stupid’.

Joseph Sciame

While not perhaps perfect history. It affords a history to told and seen by millions. Why not embrace the opportunity and then we critique it later. Besides, how could our Church ever afford the millions it might cost for such a movie. It’s a journey, and we hop on the train!

Chaplain Martin

Bro Max
“Religious movies destroy religion.”
Bring them on, brother, bring them on. Its just they can never destroy my faith in God. If I’m delusional, I have been enjoying it for over fifty-five years. If I didn’t believe in something higher than myself, with my Martin temper, I might have been like my grandfather. He wasn’t named James Wesley for nothing.
‘Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” made multi-millions of dollars.
But it added up to nothing more than a snuff film.'” Now I pretty much agree with you on that film.

Ted Crilly

So how exactly does one paint a symathetic portrait of Spainish Jesuits who represented an empire that had murdered practically every human being in Central and South America, while also butchering anyone they had to in order to try to turn back the Reformation in Europe? I should hope the man at least give kudos to the Japanese for booting them out of the Country thus ensuring they avoided European domination, unlike just about every other country in Asia.

Ted – sorry to say that it will not the Spanish Jesuits that are portrayed in the film, but Portuguese Jesuits. The same group portrayed in the movie The Mission. I don’t know how the Jesuits, who are portrayed in the film, will be represented. I would suggest you read the book first – Silence by Shusaku Endo. He would perhaps give you a better insight into the Japanese mind and to what happened back in that time period when Japan was closed to Western influence.

I live in South America and have for about 14 years and still have not heard many stories about Spaniard or Portuguese attempts to exterminate the Indians. You may well be basing this upon your knowledge of the English attempts in North America. The few Jesuits and other religious I’ve known in Latin America have gone into remote parts of the country and helped the peoples, not only spiritually, but in many other areas — business, education, health, and other areas.

ronald

While I have enjoyed such excellent Christian films as “God’s Not Dead” and “Heaven Is Totally For Reals,” I am afraid I may have to sit this one out. Martin Scorcese movies make my brain hurt a little bit. Also, if it’s set in Japan there might be subtitles and I do not like to read the movie.

Me too. Many things.
There are more powers bigger than me than I can count. None of this implies a god exists.

An ant might confuse me with a god. But it would be wrong. I am no god – my power is finite.
Just because I am a greater power than the ant, it does not mean I will behave kindly to the ant colony, nor does it mean the ant can petition me to protect its colony. nor does it mean I would understand those petitions.

Life “knew” how to create itself, in the same way water “knows”how to flow out of a bathtub. There is absolutely no reason to think any of this is personal.

Larry

Does the word “conquistador” ring a bell?

Ever heard of Francisco Pizzaro or Hernan Cortez?
Familiar at all with what Bartolomé de las Casas was writing about?

Larry

Due to treaty obligations with Japan, the film features Ken Watanabe in a supporting role. Because it is stipulated that every Hollywood film which requires either a leading or supporting character who is Japanese, MUST cast him.

Deacon John M. Bresnahan

One need only look at the skin complexion of many Latin Americans and compare that to the number of white Americans to see where there was an attempt at genocide. (One that was quite successful).
Indeed, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” is a North American slogan not one from the Hispanic world.

Deacon John M. Bresnahan

Read a history of the Reductions in central South America. Some historians say they were utopian mission towns set up to protect the Church (the Indians) from the trepidations of the State (the conquistadors). Other historians say they were just set up so the Church could control the Indians.
Either way the Native Indians wound up with more protection than Indians were given north of the Rio Grande.

Elledra

I don’t think three movies about Jesuits in almost 30 years means Hollywood is especially attracted to the subject, as the article suggests. The Mission was pretty successful and Blackrobe was made just five years later, probably to see if the success could be replicated or if the public might be getting interested in religious films (remember that Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ was made around 1988). After that there’s been (apparently) nothing about Jesuits until now–when there is a very popular Jesuit Pope in the Vatican and religious movies are big box office. The dots connect.

Chaplain Martin

Bro Max
‘Life “knew” how to create itself,…’
I like that. To me worshiping “life” seems a lot better than being a demigod to an ant. It also beats worshiping the power company, for it is not forgiving and is very punitive. For them pay day is not someday, it is pay now. Now if the ant is a fire aunt also known as a red ant, I’ll play a unforgiving revengeful demigod. Man, do those bites linger.

I’m still enjoying my delusion: “For I know whom I have believed in and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”- Hymn

Chaplain Martin

Thank you for your informative comment. I’m going to look up the book and also the movie “The Mission”

There was a Japanese film of Silence, made in about 1971. It came out on DVD some years ago. It was generally very good, but the British actor playing the leading role was rather wooden, as if he was reading from a script.

Minor correction: “Based on Shusaku Endo’s 1980 novel of the same name, it’s a dark, true tale set in 17th-century Japan.” Endo’s work is historical fiction based on real events. It’s not a “true tale,” as we don’t know the end of the actual historical tale, and Endo’s work has been the subject of furious debate in Japan, as is related in the introduction of the Taplinger Publishing Company edition of the work in English translation. Vide: http://amzn.to/1IIxubJ

It is certainly “dark.” I’d call it “disturbing.” It’s also brilliant writing. The fact that the Church in Japan survived the dark times in which the novel is set is a testimony to God’s grace.